Share This Story!

'Noah' is a hit, yet film fans may not believe in it

By almost every measure, Noah is an unmitigated hit: The Russell Crowe Biblical tale opened at No. 1, dethroned Divergent in just its second week and eclipsed analysts' expectations by more than $10 million.

'Noah' is a hit, yet film fans may not believe in it

From left: Leo McHugh Carroll, Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Russell Crowe and Douglas Booth star in 'Noah,' which took the number one spot a the box office during its opening weekend.(Photo: Niko Tavernise, Paramount Pictures)

By almost every measure, Noah is an unmitigated hit: The Russell Crowe biblical tale opened at No. 1, dethroned Divergent in just its second week and eclipsed analysts' expectations by more than $10 million.

But does that make it a success?

The epic, which debuted to $43.7 million, marks one of the industry's few special-effects films to impress critics but leave moviegoers' ratings mixed, making its long-term prospects at theaters uncertain.

Despite the solid opening and a thumbs-up from three-fourths of the nation's critics, audiences gave the $125 million movie a collective grade of "C," according to online pollsters at CinemaScore.

While that's not a failing grade in school, it's not a very enthusiastic review from moviegoers, who traditionally are more charitable than critics. Arnold Schwarzenegger's flop Sabotage was savaged by reviewers this weekend, but still managed a "B" from audiences.

Paramount Pictures executives say that Noah's mediocre score stems not from an indifferent public, but from a public with sharply different opinions.

"The one thing CinemaScore doesn't pick up well is when feelings are passionate on either side," says Rob Moore, Paramount's vice chairman.

He says that 63% of audiences gave the PG-13 movie an "A" or "B," while 14% gave it a "D" or "F," bringing down the average. He says that the backlash comes from "outliers" who expected Noah to be a strict biblical interpretation.

"It's not literal," he says of the movie, directed by Darren Aronofsky. "If that's your desire for your movie, this is not the movie for you. This is art inspired by the Bible."

Yet John Kennedy, who writes the Faith, Media & Culture column for Beliefnet.com, says even that is a tenuous claim. He describes Noah as "a science-fiction movie with some biblical overtones," but says it ultimately is standard Hollywood fare.

"I've only cooled to it since viewing it," he says. "The more I think about it, the less I like it."

The final measure will come in the following weeks, as moviegoers offer word-of-mouth reviews heading into Easter.

"Just because these biblical stories are produced doesn't mean that the religious-minded audience will show up in the theaters," says Jeff McCall, professor of media studies at Indiana's DePauw University.

"Many people in this demographic understandably look at Hollywood with suspicion," McCall says. "These stories can't be 'Hollywoodized' too much."

Still, he says, it's telling that studios are broaching a topic that the industry has largely avoided since Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments more than a half-century ago.

"Hollywood needs to broaden its demographic reach and produce movies that family-values audiences can watch comfortably."